Merry Christmas

Greetings one and all.

I am lucky enough to have two art gigs this month.

#1 is the Little Things show at one of Portland Oregon's iconic gallery's. 

Guardino Gallery. http://www.guardinogallery.com

2939 NE Alberta Street Portland, OR 9721. Open Tues 11 to 5 PM, Wed-Sat 11 to 6 PM, Sun 11 to 4 PM. 503.281.9048 Guardino is located in the beautiful Alberta Arts District in Portland OR.

#2 I am featured artist at the Broadway Gallery in Longview Washington.

http://the-broadway-gallery.com

1418 Commerce Ave. Longview, WA. Open Mon - Sat: 10 to 5:30 pm

360.577.0544

First Thursday openings, 5:30 - 7 pm.

Hope you can come to these galleries to enjoy my work and the work of my fellow artists. 

I hope to see you soon, 

Wishing you all the best, Merry Christmas!

 

 

Bragging rights

Bragging rights! 

I have always wanted to get my education. 

As a person who is severely dyslexic, being able to prove your intelligence and ability takes on more importance.

During the years of grade, middle, and high school. I was tested, analyzed, categorized, demoralized, and pushed through the educational system.

I started working legally at age 14. I earned high school credit through my diversified occupations class and the ability to be in school half the day so I could go to work. I believe this was easer and cheaper for the Kelso Washington school system than to put the time and effort into teaching me. In high school I was told the most I could hope for was to get a manual labor job, and if lucky, to work in a local mill. 

I have been working steadily since with only two summers off. Both times I left the country to get those breaks, and I am grateful and enriched for my adventures in foreign lands.

 I did not give  up my dream of getting my education and  kept chipping away credit by credit, and class by class, to earn a college education. I received an Associates of Applied Sciences in photography, from Seattle Central Community College in 1994 and my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Craft, from Oregon College of Art and Craft this May 2013. I have won various awards including the OakKnoll winery wine label competition  and the Brannon-Boekleheide award for the most outstanding graduating thesis student Oregon College of Art and Craft. 

I was told by one of the members in my thesis committee that my thesis paper was the best paper they had read in the last 17 years, touching for me to hear, since I was told I could never write. I plan to get my Masters of Fine Art degree in the very near future and who knows, maybe my Doctorate. And to those who said I couldn't, and wouldn't and didn't believe I was worth it: I could do it, I did do it, I am worth it. And to those that did believe in me, and helped me do it, thank you. And you know what? 

It's nice to have something to brag about.

What is Art?

                                                                            

Art is diverse, and has many different meanings, and is used in numerous different contexts. Art is hard
to pigeon hole. As human beings we like to organize and categorize objects, things, ideas, and events.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes art as the following: skill acquired by experience, study, or
observation and also the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.
According to the aesthetician George Dickie, “The work of art is an artifact (or event) upon which some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution ( the art-world) has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation”.
The art-world is art historians, teachers, and professors of art, educational institutions of art, art dealers, critics, collectors, gallery owners, museums, and artists.
Terence McKenna an American philosopher, ethno botanist, researcher, psychonaunt, teacher, lecturer, and writer had this to say about art, “Art’s task is to save the soul of mankind”
I believe George Dickie’s definition of art is the most correct at this current time. I also believe McKenna’s quote on art holds true as well. It is for this very reason that art and artist are so very important to society.
Without artists you would have no beauty, political, social or aesthetic background as a scaffolding to build a society on. Artists throughout history have been the shamans, performers, writers, philosophers, inventors and political activists of their time. Artists are the culturalpreneurs of the times they live in and in some cases continue to effect society hundreds of years after their deaths. Pablo Picasso said it best, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
It is through the arts that the daily grind if life and its existence is celebrated with all its imperfections, pain, suffering, love joy, beauty and death. With art we celebrate our humanity and touch the celestial.